The Village Deity Forest beyond the Hani village.

The grassy roof,road and green plants form a entirety.

    Many scholars think that the Tu Zhang Dwelling and co-generic mushroom house in Red River valley of Yunnan should be a kind of variant of ancient cave abode, which is reconstructed by Yi and Hani nationalities who are descendants of immigrants of ancient Qiang nationality. Though this merits in-depth research, the configuration and inherent essence of the Tu Zhang Dwelling are consistent with the cave abode created by ancient Qiang nationality according to spiritual strain. For example, Hani's Congpopo (In Hani language, Congpopo means moving from one place to another.), an important work of Hani's traditional literature, says directly that six thousand Hani people left hometown, and went toward southern mountains.

    Now, pan-manitou, ancestor and hero worship left in Yi and Hani nationalities are similar to that of the ancient Qiang ancestors of the upper reach of Yellow River. Even central ground, deity forest and village gate in villages have intensive signification. So. People can subtly feel that the Tu Zhane Dwelling and the Tu Zhang Dwelling village reflect obscure cognition about universe descended from ancestors, and also imply their souls' reposition for ancestors.

    There is a legend in Hani's myth: during remote antiquity time, Hani people resided in cave, mountains were high and roads were steep, and it was very inconvenient to work out of house. Afterward, when they came to a place, called Reluo, they found big mushrooms all over the mountains and plains, which could withstand wind's blow and rain's hit and under which ants nested. Therewith, people constructed mushroom houses. This kind of pan manitou also incarnates in village's layout. For example, Village Deity .Forest which is the abode of the village deity and set up on upper village, should be determined when building a village: taking big tree which was out of the village as a sign, or simply using branches to construct village gate aimed to bar tragedy, wickedness and ghosts out of the village; Mo Qiu Square, which lied at village comer, was the place tbr staging the whole village's fete activity. And, Hani people thought that the well's stream, which originated from mountains, is bestowed by mountain deity. If women drink it, she would become beautiful. If men drink it, he would become handsome. From these facts, we can see that Yi and Hani people look village as their nationality's safe habitat and shelter, and their spiritual dependence, so they always have very good imagination about the origin of house and village, and in these imagination repose their yearn for good life.

    In the Tu Zhang Dwelling villages, each family has a fire pit, which was the center for family activities and spiritual reposition as well. The fire pit was set up inside of room, and never extinct, and had a tripod on it, which could hold up pan to fry dish. Commonly, all families drank tea and had dinner around the fire pit, and warmed themselves in winter. Some families set a bed for the aged near the fire pit, which represented an ancient relic, called "sleeping around fire". When guests came, hot-hearted host would let them sit around the fire pit, let them take water cigarette for a long time, drink a cup of "sticky rice savory tea", and drink a cup of glutinous "stuffy pan wine". With the alcohol interest, the host would open his voice, singing songs to wish guest lucky. So, the fire pit was tender and affectionate.

    The Tu Zhang Dwelling and its village have another characteristic - a Tu Zhang Dwelling's space is not very big indicating a kind of equilibrium and equality. There is no tall wall and big courtyard, and no alleyway and deep residence, which made people feel comfortable and peaceful. This characteristic shows conspicuous differences with other nationalities' house size and hierarchy distinction, which, however, was determined by Yi and Hani people's family and social structure. As to Hani people, they have still kept paternalistic family structure, in which male played the main role. This paternalistic family seldom had several generations together. Except that the youngest son will live with his parents until they die, other sons should leave well after marriage. So, every generation could divide into several little families, and construct social basic cell. Because of the vertical strain structure for generations, the whole village forms very complex but very clear consanguine relation net and village social structure. This village social structure made people of a clan very united. This kind of concord and harmonious atmosphere in the Tu Zhang Dwelling was common. Hani people's "long street banquet" thoroughly represented good feeling among neighbors.

    In the morning of New Year, every Hani village would begin the long booze in the center of the village and celebrated the festival symbolizing their comity, concord, luckiness and happiness. People carried square tables to street center to connect one by one, more than one hundred tables were connected to form a 100 meters long dragon. Then, each family used dapper bamboo basket to carry their skillful dishes. At the first glance, there were every specialty from soup to nuts. In this vivid vision, one could not help sighing with feeling the complete harmony among constructions, street and people's life in Tu Zhang Dwelling villages.

    All the windows of Tu Zhang Dwelling were very small, and most of windows using little stout batten as window lattice. When the sky was clear, sunlight shot into across window lattice continuously. The goods in the sunlight were bright and vivid; those goods in shadow flash a layer of dark light, which was antique and mysterious.